Today’s Daily Cup of Joe offers a list of short playoff notes.
Pressure is now on the Capitals
Now tied at 2-2, the pressure is clearly on the Capitals for Saturday. If the Capitals lose, the Caps would have lost three games in a row and would have to play an elimination game in Raleigh. Look for the Capitals to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the game on Saturday.
The depleted forward group and lack of pure scoring
With Ferland and Svechnikov out, the Hurricanes are basically iced two fourth lines on Thursday. If Martinook is unable to go on Saturday, the Hurricanes will need to reach even deeper into the AHL depth chart. It would be fair to call Greg McKegg, Saku Maenalanen, Patrick Brown and whoever else is called up for Saturday AHL call ups. Yes, McKegg and Maenalanen have been at the NHL level for awhile now, but the point that the Hurricanes are deep into their depth chart should not be lost.
The forward group right now is really light on raw scoring power. Fortunately, the Hurricanes are driving scoring chances from their aggressive puck-hounding style and their forecheck, but if that dries up the team could be hard-pressed to generate and finish enough scoring chances. With safe and steady Patrick Brown already in the mix, the next AHL call up could seek to add a player with greater scoring potential.
Acclimation to the dangers of playoff hockey
Sebastian Aho did pick up a secondary assist on Thursday, but in general he has had a fairly quiet series. Teravainen had the huge goal on Thursday but likewise has been pretty quiet. I think especially in Aho’s case, he is adjusting to playoff hockey against a physical team. The Canes/Caps series is not a friendly one for players who want to play with the puck on their stick. In players like Ovechkin, Oshie and Wilson, the Capitals have regular forwards who play physical hockey. The result for Aho has been him regularly pulling up just inside the offensive blue line and then looking for a passing option. Peak Aho more regularly uses his speed to carve a path to the net, but that can be dangerous in this series.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Who do you expect would be the next call up of Martinook cannot go on Saturday?
2) What are you thoughts on game 5 on Saturday?
Go Canes!
The next call up all depends on Svech. I’m not saying he will play again this year, but he may be the answer.
As for CLT, they are starting their playoff series this weekend in Providence (Sat and Sun). I think for the betterment of CLT going deep you avoid calling up the young guys in allowing them a run at the Calder Cup. I think we would prefer someone who can hold their own with NHL and/or playoff experience. Tomas Jurco would be that guy.
Jurco is on an AHL contract – I am not sure the Canes would sign him just to bring him up on an emergency basis.
You very well could be right. To your point below, I agree this is not AHL tryout time either and that the kids should stay intact for the Calder run. Jurco has NHL playoff experience and plays wing (we are short on both). I think if we traded for him as depth, now is as good a time as any.
Saarela recalled.
It will be interesting to see where they slot him. Saarela has a rocket of a shot.
30 goal scorer and 200lbs so should be big enuf to survive the caps throwing the kitchen sink – which means unleashing the dirty Wilson.
As far as CLT, they get Bean back compared to the Stanley Cup the Calder is just much less important. So it surprising they didn’t recall an extra skater. They just have Fleury as an extra. Assuming Marty and Svech are out.
Everyone is getting their money’s worth in this series. It’s had a bit of everything. It’s been the most physical of all the Round 1 series and the surviving team will be paying a heavy price for moving on.
For me, I think that WAS has more to figure out than we do. Their play has fallen off quite a bit since Game 1 though maybe it’s our style that’s wearing on them; it hasn’t changed and has generate more consistent offense throughout the four games. Their offense hasn’t been nearly as effective when not on the PP and when Ovi isn’t on the ice. Keeping the game 5v5 gives us our best chance of winning two of the next three. Losing Oshie only makes their issues more pronounced.
I don’t expect to see Ferland or Martinook back but I do think Svetch is a possibility for Saturday. It sounds crazy, but we might consider skating 7 defensemen if we thought that the seventh was a better option than depth in Charlotte. Even though we’re short on scoring, I would opt for someone who leans “defensively responsible” and “hard to play against” over “offensive.” Clark Bishop seems to be the only “heavy” option left.
I like our chances if the scores are 2-1 more than if they’re 4-3. Mrazek has looked better than Holtby since the first period of Game 1 so I’ll take our guy with our defense over their guy and their defense. Their crowd is going to be feisty after the Oshie play.
Whoever plays the cleaner game is going to win the series. It’s a coin flip.
Bishop has been out with an injury since late March.
It was interesting to hear RBA talk about Brown last night in his interview – one of his comments was that he “hopes he gets better in time”. In spite of the short bench with Martinook down Brown only played 8 shifts and had about 4 minutes on ice. He did play several shifts in the third and I thought looked pretty good – but my impression is that Brown went on ice only to spell other players who were “gassed”, as RBA said. So any callup is probably going to be given the same limited exposure. I expect it will be Poturalsky – solid 2-way playmaker who scores more than Brown.
But this not AHL tryout time. And I expect that on Saturday RBA will rely on 10 forwards.
Correcting myself – RBA did not say “hope he gets better with time” but about de Haan and his return.
wow, they had 8 forward play more than 17 mins so playing 10 would be an improvement.
This may encourage the caps to really get physical which if the canes survive puts the good guys at a big advantage. Hope the refs call the penalties. (I agree, Warren deserved the 2 mins).
What about Julian Gauthier?